Human rights organisation joins teachers in advocating against forced religious indoctrination and church control of Irish schools

Human rights organisation Education Equality have released a statement against forced religious indoctrination and church control of Irish schools.

In their statement, the voluntary organisation speak against "the issue of forced indoctrination of children in the vast majority of (Irish) schools," and ask the Government to force schools to impart religious instruction "outside core school hours" so as to "uphold families’ human and constitutional rights to freedom of religion and belief."

Education Equality's demands follow the Central Statistics Office (CSO)'s recently released Marriage Report 2024, which shows that non-religious marriages outnumbered Catholic marriages last year. Non-religious ceremonies accounted for 40.5% of the total, while Catholic ceremonies accounted for 31.6%.

According to past CSO reports, non-religious marriages have steadily increased in recent years – rising from 34.5% in 2022 to 40.3% in 2023, compared to just 4% in 1990. In contrast, Catholic marriages have declined over time, making up 34.3% of all marriages in 2023, down from 40.5% in 2022 and a significant drop from 93% in 1990.

"Irish society displays a steady trend in changing our approach to religious belief and practice," said Education Equality communications officer David Graham, "and yet, nine out of ten of our state-funded primary schools are still owned and run by the Catholic church, with their ethos permeating every aspect of the education they provide."

"The results of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation’s taskforce on the future of school patronage, announced this week at the INTO annual congress, showed that the majority of teachers want change, with just 4% of respondents feeling that the responsibility for preparing children for the sacraments of communion and confirmation should lie with schools," he added.

Education Equality have joined INTO in urging the government to divest schools from religious patronage. The teachers' union recently shared a series of recommendations on the role of religion in education and primary school patronage, following a recent Civica survey of its members that revealed that only 33% of teachers provide faith formation willingly.

Among INTO's recommendations are "repealing Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Acts," which allows positive discrimination of teachers based on religious grounds, "challenging the requirement for a religious certificate as a condition of employment in denominational school," and providing resources "to manage pupils’ ‘opt-out’ arrangements from religious instruction."

"The findings from our survey and the comprehensive work of our Taskforce reflect a concern among teachers about the mismatch between modern Irish society and the structures governing our primary schools," said INTO General Secretary John Boyle. "INTO members want a school system that is inclusive, equitable and reflective of the diversity of our pupils."

Union teacher Jason Kelly said that "the vast majority of public schools are secular" in most Western democracies, where "religious certificates are only needed to teach religion – not every subject.

"Ireland is the outlier," he added. "In 2024 this union overwhelmingly passed a motion to remove the religious cert. Following that, a recent INTO survey found that only 33% of teachers provide faith formation willingly. That means 67% do not. Why? Because many, like myself, are uncomfortable delivering faith formation in a faith we don’t belong to. Because treating children differently based on religion feels fundamentally wrong.”